The present invention relates to a lightened top hat rail for fixing and carrying snap-fit apparatus.
The extruded rails supporting snap-fit apparatus are governed by standards, particularly European standards, namely the standard EN 50 022 for top hat rails 35 mm wide and standard EN 50 023 for rails 75 mm wide.
Such top hat rails are generally used for supporting electric apparatus; the rear faces or bases of the apparatus have appropriate elements for snap-fitting on the edges of the flanges of the rails.
In particular, the top hat rails defined by standard EN 50 023 are suitable for fixing and supporting relatively heavy apparatus, but they have the drawback of themselves being heavy and difficult to bore, for they are necessarily obtained by bending 3 mm thick metal sheet.
In some cases, it may be desirable to use lighter top hat rails than those defined by the above standards, but still capable of supporting apparatus, plates or bases having the specific snap-fit elements of the rails defined by these standards.